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Harry Strunk cast long shadow over Republican River basin
When Annette Trimble moved to McCook in 1954 she accepted a job at the Bureau of Reclamation.
A friend from Lincoln, Paul Evans of the Soil Conservation office, had recommended her for the position, which was a good one. The Director at the Bureau had heard that Harry Strunk, the President of the Republican Valley Conservation Association, had lost his secretary and as a gesture of cooperation between the Bureau and the RVCA had offered to lend her to Mr. Strunk, "just until he finds a permanent secretary."
She ended staying for six years, until the time of Strunk's death.
Recently Annette shared a few memories of her years as Harry Strunk's secretary. She remembers that Mr. Strunk could be difficult to work for, but he was also very good to her and to her family. It turned out to be a very satisfying relationship.
The McCook Gazette provided office space for the RVCA, rent free. Their only expense was the telephone, and Annette's salary, which came from a $3 tax per 100 population of the counties of the RVCA district, courtesy of Don Thompson's bill in the Nebraska Unicameral.
Whenever Harry Strunk took a long distance call he insisted that Annette listen on another phone line -- to be sure that he was keeping everything straight. Often he was speaking to very important people. Cliff Griffin, McCook Chamber of Commerce Secretary, spoke of the time that he was in Strunk's office when President Harry Truman phoned Harry Strunk. He marveled that the two men were on a first name basis, and that Harry Strunk was so forceful and raised his voice to the other Harry when he was driving home his point about one of his dams.
When Mr. Strunk came into the office in the morning he was very calm and quite subdued, "a real pussycat," to use Annette's phrase. But after lunching "?" at the Elk's Club up the street, he would storm into the office like a bear, and before he sat down at his desk, would almost yell, "Hello Sweetheart, Get your book!" and in rapid-fire order begin to dictate the first of perhaps a dozen letters that he felt needed to be sent.
There were some things that Annette felt needed to be changed when she went to work for Mr. Strunk and the RVCA. One was that Harry left his bottles of beer on the window sills of the office. "It doesn't look businesslike," she argued.
Surprisingly, he agreed, and with just a few lapses the presence of beer disappeared from the office. Again, when Annette attempted to straighten up the office she found bottles behind the books in the bookcases. She gradually got rid of these as well.
At the same time she began to make coffee at the office, to be ready when Mr. Strunk arrived in the morning. He liked that custom, and even brought donuts to go along with their a.m. coffee.
Mr. Strunk sometimes spoke of his boyhood in Pawnee City. Harry and four of his boyhood friends kept up their relationship throughout their lifetimes. It was an exceptional group -- Harold Lloyd, one of Hollywood's best-loved comedians, Kenneth Wherry, the fellow who defeated Sen. Norris in 1944, Ed Van Horne, President of the Federal Land Bank, Robert Bosley, Palisade Attorney, and Harry Strunk.
As Strunk recalled, they were an ornery bunch and probably escaped with considerably less punishment than they deserved. Gag gifts kept passing from one to another over the years, always provoking much laughter.
Strunk was something of a practical joker himself. One year he got a vibrating chair (supposed to provide a mini massage). Every visitor to the office was invited to try out the chair. When they would leave, Harry would say, "Well, let's see how much we made today (from the change that would shake out of the visitor's trousers). J.T. Harris, formerly of McCook, ended up with that chair.
Each year the McCook College sponsored a "Career Day" for neighboring high school students. Annette was a regular at these meetings, where she talked to aspiring secretaries. One of the things she always stressed was that secretaries should not wear overpowering perfume to the office. One year, as she was hurrying to go to Career Day, Strunk "accidentally" spilled half a bottle of Woolworth perfume on Annette's blouse as she was going out the door---too late to change clothes. With these instructions, he reminded her, "Don't forget to warn them about wearing overpowering perfume!"
Mr. Strunk liked to be a part of important events. When the U.S. was to test an atomic bomb in Nevada, Strunk, the newsman, was invited to be a witness. Because of bad weather conditions Strunk had to journey to Nevada four times to see the test.
Chicago was a favorite destination for Mr. Strunk, after a spat, or whenever he needed a place to get away for a little while -- sometimes on short notice.
The railroad simply billed him for his fare. He was a friend of the barber at the Palmer House, and the manager of the Men's Wear Dept. at Marshall Field's, where he picked up needed pieces of his wardrobe. On his return from these trips Mr. Strunk would invariably bring Annette or her children a little gift.
The three men mainly responsible for the decisions in the McCook office of the RVCA were Strunk, Vice President Don Thompson (Speaker of the Unicameral), and Treasurer, Harold Sutton, who was known as McCook's Mr. Republican. Sutton, especially, was very critical of the Democrats while they were in power in Washington, and the obstacles he perceived they were making in the progress of the dam projects. Once, during the Kennedy campaign for the White House, Strunk paid some compliment about Jackie Kennedy's splendid appearance.
Sutton reprimanded him, saying that he was getting too familiar with the Kennedys. "Listen," Strunk answered, "I'd vote for a Chinaman if I thought he could help us in the RVCA."
Mr. Strunk liked beautiful things, and he loved young people. He could not enter the hospital without stopping to look at the babies. He loved young people, and took pride in watching the Gazette paper boys and fledgling reporters develop and make their mark on society. Politicians were not the only people Mr. Strunk called in the middle of the night. One night, to the consternation of Annette's husband, Cleve, he awakened Annette at 3 a.m. He was listening to an operatic number on the radio. He found it especially beautiful and felt he must share it with Annette -- over the telephone.
When the RVCA annual meeting was held in McCook in the summer of 1960, in conjunction with the groundbreaking of the Red Willow Dam, north of McCook, it turned out to be a collective tribute to Harry Strunk. There were dignitaries from the Bureau of Reclamation, the Corps of Engineers, the National Guard, politicians from Washington and Lincoln, and distinguished Nebraskans from all parts of the state -- all lavish with their praise of Harry Strunk, at the time one of only two living men to have a government dam named after him (the other was Herbert Hoover.) He also had his picture in the Bureau of Reclamation Hall of Fame.
Some of the accolades were of the left-handed nature. One of the dignitaries, Michael Strauss, Commissioner of Bureau of Reclamation, commenting on Strunk's persistence said, "If you want to haunt a house, call Harry Strunk!" Sen. Carl Curtis, referring to Strunk's well-known habit of late night calls to people in official positions said, "When I got a call in the middle of the night and the caller began, ‘This is Harry,' I might not know if it was Harry Truman or Harry Strunk -- either way I knew I was going to catch hell."
Joking or not, the speeches were sincere, highly complimentary and full of gratitude for Harry Strunk. One of the finest tributes, and the one that pretty well summed up the evening came from John Riddell, of the York News-Times. He finished his speech with these words, "If ever a project was the lengthened shadow of a man, the Republican Valley is of you."
Harry Strunk passed away on Aug. 5, 1960. He was 68 years of age.